We’ve all been overwhelmed by streaming TV choices, only to give up and watch something we’ve already seen. But this curated list of the best shows on Netflix is here to narrow down your choices and help you figure out exactly which titles you want to sample next.

Anne With an E (2017)

Following her work as a writer on Breaking Bad, Moira Walley-Beckett took a wild right turn: She adapted Lucy Maud Montgomery’s 1908 children’s novel into this family drama series. Matthew (R.H. Thomson) and Marilla (Geraldine James)—middle-aged unmarried siblings living together on their family farm—arrange to adopt an orphan boy to help work the property. Matthew is not quite sure what to do when the orphan who arrives at the train station is Anne (Amybeth McNulty), a wildly imaginative girl. Fortunately, they eventually figure out how to be a family. There’s no better way to celebrate Canada Day than with one of the sweetest family dramedies on Netflix.

Better Call Saul (2015)

After the tremendous critical success of Breaking Bad, creator Vince Gilligan partnered with series writer Peter Gould on this prequel series, one of the best drama series streaming on Netflix. In the Breaking Bad timeline, Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) is the crooked lawyer serving Albuquerque’s underworld. Better Call Saul takes us back to his time as Jimmy McGill, the screw-up brother to Chuck (Michael McKean), one of the city’s most esteemed attorneys, and sometime paramour to the capable but occasionally corruptible paralegal turned lawyer Kim (Rhea Seehorn). All six seasons are now streaming.

Bodyguard (2018)

Richard Madden’s new spy series, Citadel, premiered on Prime Video April 2023—but before he portrayed an agent at a super-secret agency, he had another extremely important fictional job as police sergeant David Budd in this miniseries. A veteran of the war in Afghanistan, David has returned alive but experiencing PTSD that has led to a separation from his wife and their children. His life only grows more complicated when he’s assigned as the principal protection officer to Julia Montague (Keeley Hawes, now costarring in AMC’s Orphan Black: Echoes), a polarizing home secretary.

BoJack Horseman (2014)

The titular BoJack (voiced by Will Arnett, now a host of the wildly successful podcast Smartless) was, back in the ’90s, the star of a wildly successful family sitcom called Horsin’ Around. In the 2010s, he’s a has-been barely hanging on to his acting career. As part of a comeback attempt, he hires Diane Nguyen (Alison Brie, whose new limited series, Apples Never Fall, recently premiered on Peacock) to ghostwrite his memoir, drawing her into his world of substance use and depression. It really is a comedy! Paul F. Tompkins deserves special note for his work as BoJack’s onetime sitcom rival turned frenemy, a Labrador retriever named Mr. Peanutbutter.

Carol & the End of the World (2023)

Many stories that speculate about the end of days revolve around characters who decide not to go out without attempting experiences that have always scared them. In Carol & the End of the World, from Rick and Morty producer Dan Guterman, the titular Carol (voiced by Martha Kelly) would actually prefer to act as though her life won’t really be changing at all—despite the upcoming apocalypse. The voice talent in this quietly beautiful dramedy includes Beth Grant as Carol’s mother, Bridget Everett as Carol’s sister, and Michael Chernus as a potential love interest. If Prime Video’s Fallout is too intense for you, try this much gentler vision.

Chicken Nugget (2024)

Choi Min-ah (Kim Yoo-jung) is waiting for her inventor father, Choi Seon-man (Ryu Seung-ryong), at his office, making small talk with intern Go Baek-joong (Ahn Jae-hong), when she notices a mysterious machine unobtrusively pushed up against the wall. Though Baek-joong doesn’t know what it is or where it came from, Min-ah assumes it’s a device intended to perk up the fatigued and decides to hop in. Seconds later, when Baek-joong flings the door back open, Min-ah has been transformed into a chicken nugget. Thus kicks off a mission to figure out what the machine actually is—and how to change Min-ah back. Chicken Nugget is probably unlike any other live-action sitcom you’ve seen before, and the season is funnier, weirder, and sweeter than any synopsis could possibly convey.

City of Ghosts (2021)

Adults have their mockumentary series—Parks and Recreation, The Office—so why shouldn’t kids? Elizabeth Ito, a longtime director on Adventure Time, created City of Ghosts, an animated series about the kids who make up the membership of the Ghost Club. As Los Angeles residents reach out with reports of supernatural activity, the children investigate, learning about the city’s rich history in the process. Though kids are the show’s target audience, the adults who watch with them will be charmed by its storytelling and adorable animation style.

Cobra Kai (2018)

Forty years ago—almost exactly—Lucille LaRusso (Randee Heller) moved her son Daniel (Ralph Macchio) from Newark to the Los Angeles suburb of Reseda. There, Daniel found out the hard way that not only did Valley bullies not play, but they also had real fighting skills, honed under toxic sensei John Kreese (Martin Kove) at his Cobra Kai dojo. Eventually, Daniel hooks up with Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita) to learn karate and face off against his main antagonist, Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) at a local competition. The feature film The Karate Kid was followed by three sequels, a remake, and finally a series, which picks up with Daniel and Johnny in middle age. Since their fraught teen years, things have changed: Now Johnny is an underdog scraping together a living as a handyman, while Daniel is the Valley’s most successful car dealer. Karate is still the main preoccupation of everyone in the region, but now it’s Daniel and Johnny’s children—biological as well as ad hoc—who are learning how to use it against each other. The show is unserious in the very best way, and both Zabka and Macchio are clearly having the time of their lives. The first half of the sixth and final season drops July 18; prepare by starting with the first Karate Kid film when it hits the platform July 1.

Dear White People (2017)

Haunted Mansion director Justin Simien had an indie hit in 2014 as the writer-director of the feature film Dear White People, following students of color at a predominantly white Ivy League college. He returned to the story in 2017, adapting his own work as a series that became one of the best dramedies on Netflix. Logan Browning stars as Samantha White, who delivers hard truths to her classmates via her college radio show, from which the series derives its name; Brandon P. Bell reprises his film role of all-American Troy Fairbanks; Giancarlo Esposito serves as narrator for the first three (of four) seasons.

The Devil’s Plan (2023)

Producer-director Jung Jong-yeon would already be a reality-TV legend if all he’d done was The Genius, a fiendishly complex game of skill, strategy, and insight. But we’re lucky he’s gone on to The Devil’s Plan. Twelve extremely impressive contestants—including an MIT-trained lawyer, a professional poker player who studies biomedical sciences on the side, and an actor/inventor/MSc in evolutionary psychology—face off in tests of their intelligence…but there’s a social game too. If you’re bereft by American competition shows taking a break for the summer, give this brain-breaker a shot.

Elite (2018)

Gossip Girl and Euphoria are so local. If you’re looking for a scandalously sexy teen drama, you need Elite. Set at and around the fictional Madrid high school Las Encinas, the show follows three scholarship students as they mix and mingle with their rich peers. And if you also miss Pretty Little Liars, good news: There’s a mystery story too. The new season arrives July 26.

Fisk (2021)

Helen Tudor-Fisk (Kitty Flanagan, who co-created the series with Vincent Sheehan) was a successful lawyer in Sydney before her marriage fell apart. Seeking comfort, she moves back to her hometown of Melbourne—nearer her dad, Anthony (John Gaden), a retired judge, and his new-ish husband, Viktor (Glenn Butcher). Largely on the strength of her connections through Anthony, Helen is hired at Gruber & Gruber, a small sibling-run firm specializing in probate law. Working on wills and trusts doesn’t come naturally to the prickly Fisk, and seeing how she figures out how to relate to clients in times of heightened sensitivity is part of what makes this one of the most unexpectedly winning sitcoms on Netflix.

Heartstopper (2022)

Adapted by Alice Oseman from her graphic novel of the same name, Heartstopper tells the story of British high school students Charlie (Joe Locke) and Nick (Kit Connor, soon to make his Broadway debut opposite Rachel Zegler in a new Romeo + Juliet). Charlie has been out—and not by his own choice—for the past year before meeting Nick. Since Charlie believes Nick is straight, the two start as platonic friends…but over the course of the first season, their relationship evolves. Thankfully, there’s plenty of time for you to catch up before season three drops in October.

Holey Moley (2019)

The goofy obstacles of a typical miniature golf course are fun—but wouldn’t they be more fun if they weren’t quite so miniature? That’s just math! This is the premise behind Holey Moley, from Chris Culvenor, the prolific EP responsible for such reality shows as Stars on Mars and Farmer Wants a Wife. Each week, real sportscaster Joe Tessitore and fake sportscaster Rob Riggle call the action as golfers test their skills against gigantic fish, windmills, and in the first season, executive producer Steph Curry. The combination of actually talented contestants and the charming interplay between Riggle and Tessitore make this one of the most crowd-pleasing shows on Netflix, and a perfect choice to come down after a sunny summer day.

Insecure (2016)

If you’re curious about President Barbie’s exploits before she took office, look no further than this HBO sitcom, which recently arrived on Netflix. Issa Rae adapted her web series, Awkward Black Girl, into this show about Issa (Rae), a nonprofit staffer stumbling through her postcollege years in Los Angeles. Yvonne Orji plays Issa’s best friend, Molly, who seems to have her life together as a successful attorney, but still has as much to learn about love as her less polished pals.

John Mulaney Presents: Everybody’s in L.A. (2024)

This six-part series originally aired as a nightly live event in May, to coincide with the Netflix Is a Joke comedy festival (the reason everybody was, at the time, in Los Angeles). But missing it live is no reason to give it a pass entirely. John Mulaney presides over a project that’s part late-night talk show, part excavation of his complicated feelings about his relatively newly adopted city, and all experiment. The disparate guest list includes Marcia Clark, Andy Samberg, Mae Martin, Ronny Chieng, Cedric the Entertainer, and Weezer; well-known New Yorker Richard Kind occasionally pipes up as Mulaney’s sidekick.

Maid (2021)

Stephanie Land’s memoir, Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive, provided the source material for this limited series. Alex (Margaret Qualley, who recently reteamed with her Poor Things writer-director Yorgos Lanthimos for Kinds of Kindness) is a young mother whose decision to leave her abusive boyfriend Sean (Nick Robinson) is fraught with peril: severely limited finances, a Kafkaesque bureaucracy, and insufficient support from the people closest to her. Alex’s determination to create a safe and happy life for her daughter, Maddy (Rylea Nevaeh Whittet), and to become a writer keep her pushing through extremely challenging obstacles.

My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman (2018)

For each short season of what is practically an event series, David Letterman—the original host of both Late Night and the Late Show—curates a tiny group of guests with whom he spends an entire episode. Past visitors include Tina Fey, Jay-Z, Howard Stern, and Barack Obama, giving his first interview after leaving office. The rhythms are definitely different from what you’re used to seeing Dave do, but it’s still a joy to see it done by one of the greats. Season five premieres June 12.

Narcos (2015)

How did Pablo Escobar go from a comparatively low-level smuggler to one of the world’s most notorious drug kingpins who died at the hands of an international law enforcement task force (er, spoiler alert)? Steve Murphy—a real DEA agent, since retired, who worked on the case—is portrayed here by Boyd Holbrook, who also narrates the story of the DEA’s investigation into Escobar (Wagner Moura). Murphy’s DEA colleague Javier Peña is played by future Mandalorian star Pedro Pascal. The series was followed by a companion series, Narcos: Mexico, in 2018.

One Day (2024)

David Nicholls’s 2009 novel, One Day, has an innovative format: showing a couple’s meeting (just after their college graduation ceremony) and then every subsequent year of their lives, on the anniversary of that day. It was already adapted as a film in 2011, but if you read the book and felt the movie version was too rushed, Netflix seems to have agreed, as it greenlit a limited-series version from Nicole Taylor (Wild Rose), with each year’s day showcased in its own episode. Ambika Mod (This Is Going To Hurt) and Leo Woodall (The White Lotus) star as Emma and Dexter in one of Netflix’s most romantic and devastating TV series.

Perfect Match (2023)

Netflix has so many original reality shows—including Love Is Blind, Sexy Beasts, The Mole, The Circle, and Too Hot to Handle—that the pool of alumni from past seasons is now well into triple digits. Sure, some of them may have failed to find love or win a cash prize on their first outing, but they’re still attractive and hungry for fame. So why not give them another shot? Perfect Match assembles a bunch of cuties to share a villa, pair up, and compete in challenges. Periodically, they get the chance to break up and pick new partners, with other reality cast-offs joining and departing every couple of days. If this sounds a lot like Bachelor in Paradise, that’s no accident—and since ABC has stopped making those for the time being, this is a fine substitute. Season two dropped last month.

Ripley (2024)

Patricia Highsmith’s book The Talented Mr. Ripley has already been adapted for the screen a few times, most notably by the late Anthony Minghella; this project, from writer-director Steven Zaillian, is the first to give Highsmith the series treatment. In this version, Tom Ripley (Andrew Scott) is running short cons in New York when a PI named Alvin McCarron (Bokeem Woodbine) approaches him with an invitation to meet shipbuilder Herbert Greenleaf (Kenneth Lonergan). Only when one of Ripley’s go-to scams goes awry does he make contact, subsequently finding out that Greenleaf wants to send him to Italy to convince his wastrel son, Dickie (Johnny Flynn), to come back to America. That might have been a solid plan—if Greenleaf had done just a little more due diligence on this freelancer. Stunning black-and-white photography makes this one of the most beautiful shows on Netflix.

Royal Pains (2009)

Given the enormous popularity Suits enjoyed on Netflix (and Peacock) last summer, it stands to reason that the platform would look for its next hit among USA’s “blue sky” shows. A new acquisition is my personal favorite: Royal Pains. Hank Lawson (Mark Feuerstein) is a doctor at a fancy hospital in Manhattan. When a dispute ends in his firing, he partners with his business-major brother, Evan (Paulo Costanzo), to set up shop in the Hamptons, working as a concierge doctor to the ultrarich; every episode contains a medical mystery, but (spoiler) they pretty much all resolve within the hour, and against a backdrop of stunning real estate, looking its best in brilliant summertime. Look out for a pre-Barry Henry Winkler as Eddie, the Lawson brothers’ con artist father.

Russian Doll (2019)

Nadia (Natasha Lyonne, also a co-creator alongside The Acolyte creator Leslye Headland) has a perfectly lovely time at her 36th birthday party. She stops at a bodega and is about to head home when she spots her wandering cat, Oatmeal. Stepping into the street to retrieve him, Nadia is struck by a cab and killed—but only briefly. When she reawakens in the bathroom at her birthday party, she remembers having lived this night already, but no one else does. After living and dying several times over, she meets a stranger who is experiencing the same phenomenon, and they unite to figure out how to break themselves out of their time loop. A second season, in 2022, features a much more central role for season-one guest star Chloë Sevigny and plays with time in an entirely different way.

Shameless (2011)

On Chicago’s South Side, negligent and substance-addicted Frank Gallagher (William H. Macy) has plenty of time to feed his worst impulses and very little for his many children. So the job of raising them primarily falls to the eldest, Fiona (Emmy Rossum). The supporting cast includes future The Conners star Emma Kenney, future Gotham star Cameron Monaghan, and future VF Hollywood cover star Jeremy Allen White, who just returned to FX/Hulu for season three of The Bear.